title: Depth of invasion for appendiceal metastasis of ovarian cancers: does it have any clinical significance?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Depth of appendiceal metastasis in patients with epithelial ovarian carcinoma (EOC) has not been previously analyzed for a possible relationship with clinico-pathological variables.
  
  
  METHODS
  Sixty-nine patients with EOC treated at Hacettepe University were retrospectively analyzed. All of the patients had appendiceal metastasis. Pathological slides were re-reviewed by the same pathologist. Appendiceal metastases were defined as serosal (if tumoral spread involved only serosa of the appendix) or sero-mucosal (if tumoral spread also involved either muscular or mucosal surfaces of the appendix). Univariate and multivariate analysis did not reveal a significant difference with respect to the prognostic variables between the groups.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Thirty-nine patients had serosal appendiceal metastasis (56.5%), while the remaining 30 patients (43.5%) had appendiceal metastasis extending toward the muscular layer (seromucosal metastasis: 16 within muscularis mucosa, 14 within the mucosa of the appendix). The mean age at the time of diagnosis was 54.58 years (range, 26-88 years), with no significant difference between the groups (P = 0.9). Comparison of the survival rates between the two groups did not reveal a significant difference. Three-year survival rates were 23.3% in the serosal metastasis and 27.9% in the seromucosal metastasis group (P = 0.9). This figure was 25% for patients with only muscular metastasis and 41.6% for patients with appendiceal metastasis extending to the mucosal layer (P = 0.2).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This is the first report to analyze the metastatic pattern of EOC on the appendix with respect to depth of invasion which could not reveal a significant difference.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Division of Gynecologic Oncology, Baskent University Faculty of Medicine, Tandogan, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Ali
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ayhan
authors.forename: Murat
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gultekin
authors.forename: Emine Arzu
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Sağlam
authors.forename: Polat
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Dursun
authors.forename: Nasuh Utku
authors.initials: NU
authors.lastname: Dogan
authors.forename: Guldeniz
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Aksan
authors.forename: Alp
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Usubutun
authors.forename: Kunter
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yuce
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001063:Appendiceal Neoplasms / Q000556:secondary*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D010051:Ovarian Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D012189:Retrospective Studies